Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Big increase in Rafale's price' that was published in Newsband

Big increase in Rafale's price

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision, announced out of the blue in Paris on April 10, 2015, to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force for six squadrons pushed the price of each fully fitted, combat-ready aircraft up by 41.42%.

Top-level corruption and criminal misconduct have been alleged, notably by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, and three well-known public interest petitioners, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and Prashant Bhushan, who along with two others took their case to the Supreme Court of India but could not succeed.

Comparisons have been drawn with the Bofors scandal, by protagonists as well as antagonists, towards different ends, but unlike Bofors, where journalistic investigation was able to uncover corruption disguised as ‘commissions’ paid secretly into Swiss bank accounts, no money trail has been discovered so far in the current case. What seems guaranteed is that we have not heard the last of l’affaire Rafale.

The fact is that 36 aircrafts have been ordered for the price negotiated between the two countries. Can India afford to buy 126 aircrafts at one go? No way. So, 36 is a good compromise and all of us should be happy that we are getting even that many after years of inaction by the UPA regime.

What PM did was to fast track the procurement. The decision was in the interest of the nation. Some people make it sound like PM just paid money on the spot and bought aircraft. There were negotiations after PM’s announcement for almost a year and half. If INT gave a final go ahead even with 4-3 majority then it says that there were enough people who felt that the deal was in the interest of the nation. In any case we always had the option of moving away from the deal. The fact that India desperately needed the aircraft must have played on the minds of the people involved. And nobody is perfect. Maybe they will negotiate a better deal next time around. What is important is there is no corruption. I hope this politics stops as this will only harm the interests of our nation.

There should be no compromise on national defence. GOI has opted for latest tech in aircraft and did not compromise. It is a right choice through and through. The Supreme Court announced that all procedures laid down in the Defence rule book were followed. The decision on technical specifications, weapon systems, pricing, numbers of aircrafts are all decided by IAF top brass and Defense ministry experts. Modi has very little role except that of talking to French Govt and clinching a best deal.

Any item except computer model prices will always soar - in ten years time it usually doubles. The bare empty machines are now equipped with stealth equipment which would cost more. BTW, these machines so heavily equipped that China and Pak have no answer to these.

One important point in favor of Rafale which Eurofighter do not have is manufacturer's successful history in India. Mirage 2000 is a plane from Dassault which many IAF staff speaks of very fondly and also have shown outstanding performance in Kargil. India due to this reason has a strong bias towards Rafale.

One thing seems clear, everything is not above board as far as the Rafale deal is concerned. The more hoodwinking the Govt does, the more it will eventually get hurt. There is SC judgement in the case, which, however, did not want to sit in judgement over price aspects. JPC, of course, is a political tool. But that is the one and only sure way to unearth if there had been any error.

It's logical that the development costs have a fixed value and hence the lower the quantity, higher will be the per unit Add-on. But look at the other way, If GOI would have stuck to the 126 number then it would have cost neutral. But, the India’s specific ideas were of 2007 thinking. They were supposed to make it more lethal at that point of time. But technology changes every 3-4 years. So what't the point in procuring outdated numbers in large quantity? So the decision by GOI is right and apt.

Now coming to the current fleet of IAF. At present India has acute shortage of flying aircrafts in 2019 but in 2007 we were in starting stage of shortage of aircrafts. This shortage of aircraft also built pressure on cuurrent government which is not fault of current government. Modi took the decesion in the best interest of the country without involving any middlemen. Nation's safety comes first, cost escalation has been due to 'commission' bates expected by Congress leaders.